Chapter 36 #3
“When did all this start?” I asked, studying the fingers closely. The cuts were clean. Precise. There was dry blood around where they’d been cut off, staining the parchment paper underneath.
“A few days after I got here,” Lukyan answered. That meant this obsession had progressed quickly.
“Is there any footage of her? Maybe at the gym when she went through your locker, or when she broke into your car?”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “The cameras had some sort of glitch and went down around the same time anything happened.”
Concerning. Very concerning.
“I’m going to send this to Thomas, see if he can lift any prints off the box.” We needed to find out who this was, and quickly, before it escalated any further.
Lukyan shrugged. I didn’t like the look in his eyes. This chick’s crazy matched his to a tee.
“Maybe he should go home with you,” Illayana said, giving me a knowing glance. “Get him out of New York and away from her.”
I hid my smirk. She was definitely taking advantage of the situation, but hey, I wasn’t going to complain. It made the whole thing easier.
“I agree. Pack your bags, Lukyan. You’ll be coming back with me.
” A woman walked past, her god-awful wig catching my attention.
It was cheap, like the kind you’d find at a two-dollar store.
She fiddled with it uncomfortably, glancing around with a sulky look on her face.
It didn’t fit on her head properly, and the look of it reminded me of a tumbleweed blowing through the desert.
“What happened there?” I asked, flicking my head towards the woman.
She looked familiar, like I’d seen her before, but I just couldn’t remember where.
Illayana turned. When her eyes landed on the woman she spun back around, an evil grin on her face. “That’s Gabriella.”
“Why does she look so miserable? And why is she glaring at you?” I asked, studying the woman.
“She ‘accidentally’ walked in on Arturo in the shower,” Illayana said, using air quotes. “Accidentally my ass. She did it on purpose. So I set the bitches hair on fire.”
My brows shot up at the same time Lukyan barked out a laugh. “God, that was so funny,” he rumbled, eating more of his food. “Wish you could have seen it, Zander. Her head went up like a fireball,” he cackled.
“She’s been staying at the house ever since I moved in. But don’t worry, I have it on good authority that she’s going to have a terrible accident very soon. One that’s going to kill her,” Illayana chuckled evilly.
“I’m surprised you haven’t killed her already.”
“Where would be the fun in that?” she said, a wicked smirk curling on her lips. “You know I prefer my victims to suffer first. A woman like that cares about her appearance. It defines her. I plan to make her as ugly on the outside as she is on the inside before I take her life.”
Lukyan and Illayana broke out in a fit of laughter, sharing a look with one another like they had some sort of inside joke on the situation. I joined in, my body shaking with amusement. Fuck, I missed these two.
The rest of the party was seemingly uneventful.
People danced and laughed. Arturo’s younger siblings, Theodora and Lucien, ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, squealing and chasing each other.
Lukyan and Illayana argued some more. Neither Nik nor Tatiana had been seen since she walked off with the Cosa Nostra man.
All in all, it wasn’t too bad of an afternoon.
The only person missing from the festivities was Arturo’s younger brother, Vincenzo. But I didn’t care enough to ask about him.
Halfway through the party Illayana unveiled the guns Nik and I brought with us from Vegas. The Cosa Nostra men loved the new weaponry. We also threw in some AK-47s and AA-12s. Which, based on the way the men went crazy, worked in Illayana’s favour.
Hopefully it would help smooth over the tension between her and the men. It would make them see how advantageous it was when a Bratva princess married their Boss.
I was getting ready to leave, throwing the last of Lukyan’s bags into the car, when Illayana sidled up to my side.
“You heading out?”
I nodded, slamming the boot shut.
She hugged me. “Thanks for coming. I know you didn’t want to, so I appreciate it.”
“Don’t mention it,” I grunted, pulling back.
She glanced around quickly before levelling me with a serious stare. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to you alone. There was just so much shit going on and I was getting pulled into a million different directions, but I wanted to see if you were okay.”
I frowned. “I’m fine.”
She looked at me with sympathetic eyes. “ Starshiy brat, big brother, you think I haven’t noticed the change in you?
You’re different. Distant, more closed off.
I can’t believe I’m even going to say this, but you seem…
sad. I noticed it first when I came to the house earlier in the week, but I didn’t want to say anything because I was sure I was imagining it.
But I saw it again today. These moments when you’d just zone out and shut down, your mind going somewhere else. What’s going on? Talk to me.”
I sighed, looking away. Sometimes, Illayana was far too perceptive for my liking.
There was a part of me that wanted to sweep it under the rug.
Pretend she was imagining it like she thought.
Plaster on a fake smile and tell her everything was fine.
But there was a bigger part of me that wanted to talk about all this shit with Drea.
So I did.
I started from the beginning, telling her about the initial connection I felt when I met her.
I dove further into our time together, omitting a few details here and there that Illayana didn’t need to know.
I told her my fears about letting Drea go.
The worry I felt clutching my chest. And Illayana listened, not a single ounce of judgement on her face.
I didn’t tell her about Anya Tarasov, because I knew she would feel guilty about it, like it was her fault. But it wasn’t.
“I know her people were partly responsible for what happened to you—”
“No, Aleksandr, don’t think about that. I don’t blame her. It was out of her control. The only person to blame is Nero and that fucker is long dead. Do you want my advice?”
Did I? I wasn’t sure. I nodded anyway.
“You need to let her go.”
Anger shot through me, like it always did when that thought entered my mind.
“Here me out. I understand your worries, but that’s something that you need to face.
You can’t just keep her locked up in that house forever.
Not only will she likely go mad being stuck there, but the repercussions from the cartel could have drastic effects on the Bratva.
You need to have faith that if you let her go, she’ll come back to you. ”
I didn’t have that faith though, did I? Because I wasn’t sure if she cared about me the same way I cared about her.